From the founder of The Oxford American: * SMIRNOFF’S “FUNKY OLD SCHOOL” LOUISIANA MUSIC MIX *

1.“Have Love, Will Travel”by Richard Berry and The Pharaohs (1959)

THE song Berry is globe-famous for debuted in 1957 on a 45 released by Flip. The B-Side was “You Are My Sunshine,” which was a 1940 hit for Jimmie Davis, twice later to be governor of Louisiana.

(Davis and Charles Mitchell are credited as the songwriters for “You Are My Sunshine,” but Davis, or both of them, actually purchased the song-rights from Paul Rice of The Rice Brothers Gang of Georgia after that group moved to Shreveport. Whether the Rice Brothers Gang actually wrote the song is another question. But the practice of buying (and stealing) song rights was common in those days.)

The A-Side to the 1957 Flip release was both written and sung by Berry: “Louie, Louie.” Two years later, Berry’s “Have Love, Will Travel” would echo “Louie, Louie,” but seems, clearly, a separate masterpiece.

Berry was born in Extension, Louisiana, a settlement south of Monroe about which I could not find any data online. Gov. Davis was born in Beech Springs, Louisiana, a town that is reputed to no longer exist.

BONUS 1: A ukulele/banjolele version of Richard Berry’s “Have Love, Will Travel”:

BONUS 2: Live
version of “Have Love, Will Travel” from The Black Keys:

2. “Mama’s Boy”by Biff Rose(1968)

HOW to describe Biff Rose other than as a
charismatic New Orleans pianist (a very popular type)? Well, Tommy Smothers
called him (on the bonus clip below) “very gentle, a very beautiful guy,” which
also fits.

BONUS: Biff Rose
singing “Gentle People” on the Smothers Brothers’ TV show, bookended by a few
words of a more recent vintage from the still charismatic Biff:

3. “Trouble with My Lover”by Betty Harris(1968)

AT the last Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans—the
greatest show on earth, by the way—I was standing outside the Howlin’ Wolf
theater, taking a break from the inside magic when whose sleek, elegant figure
did I espy standing on the corner of S. Peter and N. Diamond but Allen
Toussaint’s!?!?

Since he was momentarily by himself, I went up
to him and said (of course, we had never met): “I bet you can’t guess my
favorite Allen Toussaint song?”

People standing on the corner of New Orleans
streets past midnight should not be surprised to be accosted by a lunatic. So
the vaguely startled if not alarmed look I detected in Mr. Toussaint’s features
were, I thought, a bit unfair. But I trudged on and practically yelled: “‘Trouble
With My Lover’ by Betty Harris!”

It is impossible to encapsulate Allen Toussaint’s
achievements in a 600-page biography, let alone in one sentence, but the man
has written, performed, arranged, and produced more great pop, soul,
& r&b songs than is humanly possible. Google for the truth if you don’t
believe me.

Anyway, after I mentioned the Betty Harris
record, Mr. Toussaint relaxed and his eyes expressed delight. “I hadn’t
heard that before!,” he replied.

(To have impressed Mr. Toussaint is one of the notable achievements of my life and if I sound like I’m bragging, I am.)

It is, of course, impossible to pick just one
Toussaint-related track as the best ever, but then again it seems
impossible to think that “Trouble with My Lover” could
possibly be topped by anything.

Though Ms. Harris was born in Florida, “Trouble
with My Lover” is all New Orleans: Not only was it written and arranged by The
Great Toussaint but that fab supporting band you hear? They would soon become
known as The Meters. (Above photo: Allen Toussaint in 1968.)

BONUS: “Get
Out of My Life, Woman,” another song written and arranged by Allen Toussaint,
was a big hit for another New Orleans cat, Lee Dorsey. This live version by Dorsey
is super-duper, even though I miss Toussaint’s funky, breathy piano, which can be heard on the
original:

4. “(I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead) You Rascal You”
by Jimmy Noone & His Apex Club Orchestra (1930)

NOT only are there too many great Louisiana
jazzers to chose from, but too many of them covered this dynamite toon
including: Clarence Williams, Louis Armstrong, Luis Russell, Louis Prima, and
Dr. John.

A lot of those versions are great, but I’m
opting for this one by the clarinetist and vocalist Jimmy Noone (born in Cut
Off, Louisiana), who sings it here with teammate Eddie Pollock.

BONUS 1: Some
people only see the racism in this animated clip of “You Rascal You,” but the
very fact that Louis Armstrong’s person and music were considered marketable as
a cartoon/music video likely means more than racism was at play:

BONUS 2: A
young, young, young Sammy Davis, Jr., does his own thang with this song:

5. “Denga, Denga” by Ashton Savoy (1958)

BORN in Sunset, Louisiana, the guitarist Ashton
Savoy is known, if he is, for playing with the Louisiana blues singer Katie
Webster. This rollicking track was released by Eddie Schuler on his first-rate
Goldband Records label, which came out of Lake Charles, Louisiana. That’s the
same label for which many other very boffo artists (Al Ferrier, Johnny Jano,
Jay Chevalier, et al) cut records, including Dolly Parton, who recorded her
debut on Goldband when she was 13 years old.

BONUS: “Puppy Love”—Dolly Parton’s first record:

6. “Roll with the Punches”by Carol Fran(1967)

A winner from a Lafayette native (pictured with Danny White) who started
off singing and playing piano in California for red-hot Joe Lutcher (of Lake
Charles, Louisiana, brother of red-hot Nellie Lutcher, whose music adorned two
previous OA cds). A bout of homesickness brought Miss Fran back home to
Louisiana where she joined the band of a third Lutcher: Bubba.

BONUS 2: And
another, said to be the first TV commercial to feature African-American actors:

8.“Pigtails and Blue Jeans”by Leonard “Chick”Carbo(1958)

CHUCK Carbo, Leonard’s better-known bro,
deserves praise for his sterling career, which began with gospel and then
partook of r&b, soul, and funk. But brother Leonard, a.k.a. “Chick,” had
that Carbo mojo down pat too. Both bros sang for Louisiana’s most famous doo wop group,
The Spiders, and both had worthy solo careers. Here’s Chick backed by The
Upsetters, the New Orleans studio band that backed Little Richard on many
records.

IT’S hard keeping up with the endless stream of
sweet, sensational soul singers who poured out of Louisiana. Of Danny White,
Allen Toussaint said: “Danny was never really a big-name artist, but he had a
band that worked the Sho Bar on Bourbon Street that was really hot.” Well, he
should have been a big name artist and that big name should have been NATURAL
SOUL BROTHER!

10. “Not That Kind of Guy”by The Glory Rhodes(1966)

A galvanizing number of garage-rock bands rattled and shook from cages inside the state of Louisiana. One of my faves is ultra-obscure The Glory Rhodes, whose haunting “Not That Kind of Guy” never seems anything but fresh. (Thanks to garagehangover.com for the intro to this band.) Their 1966 cover of “I’m Gonna Change the World” is nifty too.

BONUS: Because very little regional garage rock from the 1960s got airplay beyond regional radio, it is rare to find film of such groups. So I’m gonna cheat here and simply link you to one of my favorite all-time garage-punks songs, “She Said Yeah,” by a band called The Rolling Stones. This sizzling cover, which is a minute and fifty-odd seconds of high energy run amuck, includes infectious backup vocals that weren’t on the original (nice touch). The original was by Larry Williams, who also wrote “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” and “Slow Down,” and he was from New Orleans and that’s the connection:

11. “Reborn”by Marilyn Barbarin(1971)

EDDIE “Bo” Bocage, another certifiable
Louisiana Superstar, both wrote and produced this song. Miss Marilyn took it
from there.

BONUS:
For
Sir Shambling’s spot-on write-up of Marilyn Barbarin and to hear a few other great
songs by her, click here.

12. “Classified”by James Booker(1976—from a live show in Hamburg, Germany)

JAMES Booker is the most well-known of my
choices here but I couldn’t resist and sometimes I think it’s his back-story that commands attention
more than his performances. I was torn between sharing “Gitarnarias” or “Classified,”
and chose the latter by a hair-nose simply because of this hypnotic film clip. Also, you
can find a link to the sublime “Gitanarias” below.

BONUS 1: “Gitanarias”
performed by James Booker. From the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuouna to the
legendary hands of James Booker at a pub on Maple Street in New Orleans:

13. “Sixteen Chicks”by Joe Clay(1956)

FROM the town of Harvey, Joe Clay (who was born
with the name Claiborne Joseph Cheramie) is a rockabillin barn-buster of the
highest pedigree. He not only cut his own A-level tracks (other Joe Clay
keepers include “Get on the Right Track” and “Don’t Mess with My Ducktail” and “You
Look That Good to Me”), but apparently he also played guitar for Elvis on a few
records, and, according, to wiki, “he even filled in as a drummer for Elvis
when he played Pontchartrain Amusement Park in New Orleans and D.J. Fontana
could not make the gig.” The blog American Roots Music contends that Joe Clay’s
version of “Sixteen Chicks” ranks “as one of the purest uninhibited,
quintessential rockabilly songs from the 1950s” and I concur.

14.“Tired of Crawling, Gonna Start to Run”by Johnny Ray Harris (1960)

THIS hot-doggin’ fireman from Shreveport took
the bones from Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” and added meat and a baritone. Why did so many great artists come from Shreveport?

BONUS: A
live performance (audio only, but still fetching) of Johnny Ray Harris on The
Louisiana Hayride from 1960. “Are there any Cajuns in the house?”

BONUS 2 & 3: “I’m Gonna Live Some Before I Die” By Faron Young:

This is not the most riveting performance but it is country done right, which means earnestly. As I contend, Shreveport produced an extraordinary amount of musical talent. Faron Young is another example.

“I Don’t Care” by Webb Pierce:

Clearly from the same show as above. Two Louisianans for the price of one.

15.“Nothing You Do”by The In-Crowd(1966)

TONS of bands from the 1960s called themselves The Inn Crowd or The In Crowd, but only one had the magical hyphen and came from Shreveport—our boys! This is another song that I learned about on garagehangover.com. If I haven’t made it clear what an essential source that site is, I hereby do so now.

BONUS: As mentioned earlier, footage of 1960s garage rock can be nigh impossible to find. Here’s a nice way to cheat without cheating: born John Henry Ramistella in New York, he moved to Baton Rouge as a babe in the 1950s and became, no doubt overnight, Johnny Rivers! The only difference between “Secret Agent Man” and other classic garage-rock songs is that “SAM” became a national hit.

16. “Put on Your Grey Bonnet”by Wingy Manone & His Orchestra(1939)

BACK in the good old days, you didn’t ignore people’s disabilities, you made fun of them. Thus, after Joseph Matthews Manone somehow lost his right arm in a tussle with a New Orleans street car, he became forever known as Wingy. So labeled, you might think Wingy was a bitter old coot. Well, according to the most joyous of sources, Mr. Louis Armstrong, Wingy himself consistently displayed “a wonderful Sense of Humor. He still knocks me out. And everybody else.” We don’t even have to take Satchmo’s word for it; ain’t there joy to be heard in Wingy’s voice and music?

In a jewel of book published in 1999 by Oxford University Press called LOUIS ARMSTRONG, IN HIS OWN WORDS: SELECTED WRITINGS, Satchmo had more to write on this subject:

“I did not get to know any of the White Musicians personally [when I first started playing music in New Orleans], because New Orleans was so Disgustingly Segregated and Prejudiced at the time—it didn’t even run across our minds. But I was fortunate to have the opportunity to meet some of them up North in 1922 when I went to Chicago to play Second Cornet for Joe Oliver.... The first White Boy Musician that I met was a Cornet Player by the name of Wingy Manone. He was always good on his horn. Still is.... All of the Musicians just loves him.”